“Leland Stowe’s book has the distinction of being the most able journalistic presentation of the transformation of Satellite Europe into a Soviet colony. Stowe summarizes ably the revealing statistics of Soviet progress among Moscow’s six puppet states and Eastern Germany: 1 million slave camp prisoners, some 15 million trained soldiers, more than 2 million men in security and other internal armed forces, 18 million farmers and their families (who are now being sucked into Soviet machinery), and more than 15 million industrial workers who are helping to transform the region into military base for future Soviet aggression. The constant exhortations of Stowe about the Soviet menace might antagonize those inclined to view the burning problems of the day more ‘academically’ than he does. But the fact remains that no liberal can continue apologizing for the Soviet system in satellite Europe after reading this popularized account of what is happening to the ‘shatter zone’ of Europe.”

—The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.